Testimony of Joseph Smith

Halo Keluargaku,

Well, this week has definitely been a little bit of an unusual one. My companion is making a trip to Singapore, and instead of having me go to the nearest area with missionaries, they decided this time to have me just try and stay with members for the two-and-a-half days my companion has been gone, which means for these three days I've been following the Branch President to work and sitting quitetly reading until he goes home and I switch off to staying with one of the young men. So, it's good and bad. On the bright side, I had the chance to study the Doctrine and Covenants for about six hours yesterday and actually loved it! It's amazing what serving a mission will do for the way you look at the scriptures, and equally amazing to see the rich blessings that can flow from good, solid scripture study. Reading and studying the Doctrine and Covenants yesterday really deepened what knowledge I thought I had about Joseph Smith as the prophet of the restoration. Now, I feel like more than ever before, I know that he truly was who he said he was. I think Joseph F. Smith talked about how testimony from the Holy Ghost can be imparted to us so strongly it literally becomes woven into the sinews and nerves of our bodies so that it cannot be forgotten, and I feel like everyday I'm getting more of that kind of knowledge about the Prophet. I still have lots to learn, but it's awesome to see what the Lord will bless us with when we seek it.

So, on the down side of sitting around, I'm experiencing a unique kind of missionary sickness I've heard missionaries talk about, but I wasn't sure I'd ever experience personally. It's called, "I've-been-sitting-around-too-long-and-I-need-to-get-out-and-do-some-missionary-work-right-now-itis." It's bad. You just don't feel like a missionary when you're sitting around. So, hopefully I'll be able to remedy that with some good hard work tonight.

Overall things are looking up here. Elder Stewart and I had the best numbers of our companionship this last week (and we miraculously hit our revised new investigators goal of 25 on our last night. A Sunday, which is usually one of our less productive times for finding!) So, although the teaching pool is looking a little sparse right now, things are on the up-and-up.

So, Tawau is in good hands (Heavenly Father's). It's helpful for me to remember that the works of God cannot be frustrated, and that the Standard of Truth has been erected and is here to stay! There's nothing I or anyone else can do to ruin the purposes of God, so even if all our investigators dropped us and the branch fell apart, Heavenly Father would still have a plan to make things better again. That's reassuring.

So, I love you all so much. Thanks for all your encouragement. Things are looking up here, and I'm working harder than I have any other time on my mission. Thanks so much for your prayers and help. Love you so much!

Love you!
Elder Blissett

P.S. I almost completely forgot the 4th of July until my companion asked if we were going to find a way to celebrate the other day. Isn't that crazy? Needless to say, holidays are different here...